The Balance Sheet can been populated with Assets, Liabilities and other items relevant to the Matter, directly from the questionnaire or start with a blank balance sheet and add the items. Once populated, you can begin modelling out your client's scenarios, offers, and generating documents at the click of a button! Outlined below are instructions to help you with these functions:
- Add items to the Balance Sheet
- Edit the item details or delete an item
- Adding Proposals
- Applying calculations
To add items to the Balance Sheet:
Click the 'Add' button in the top right corner and select the type of item you wish to add, then fill in the Item's Details window.
Minimum information for an Asset / Liability / Superannuation item includes:
- Ownership
- Type
- Short description
- Proposed value. ($0 can be entered if value is unknown or to be determined.)
Click 'Save' for the item to appear on the Balance Sheet - any values ($) will be included in all sums and outcome calculations.
Edit the item details or delete an item:
Click on an item in the Balance Sheet to open up the Item's Details window to edit the information section, delete the item or view, download or upload attachments.
Within the information section, you will notice the following sub-tabs:
1. Balance sheet - add or edit the information for the balance sheet, including the name and proposed action. If the value is an estimate, you can tick the estimate only box provided to mark the value with an asterisk (*).
2. Details - This sub tab stores specific information depending on the 'Type' of item selected. Completing these fields are important for populating some of FamilyProperty's court documents.
For example, for a Liability, if the 'Type' = 'Credit Card', the Details tab will ask for:
- Card provider
- Card type
- Account number (last 4 digits)
However, if you change this so 'Type' = 'Tax Debt', the Details tab will instead ask for:
- Tax year
- Owed to
3. Notes - Store optional extra notes as well as chronology entries related to the item.
Adding Proposals:
1. Click on 'Propose something?' for an item
2. A box will appear showing a 50:50 split. Click and hold your curser on the box to slide it to the left for your client or to the right (Note: the names of the parties at the top):
3. As proposals are added to the balance, FamilyProperty auto-calculates the sums and splits. The outcome box at the bottom of the balance sheet auto-calculates the splits in percentage and monetary terms. This overall outcome is always visible in your screen footer for convenience.
Tip -
Liabilities can be connected to existing Assets on the Balance Sheet if you wish to see the Asset's net proceeds. (For example, you may wish to connect a Mortgage (Liability) to the House (Asset) to see the net proceeds for the house.) To do this, click on the liability to open the form and in the field 'Connect this liability to', select the asset from the list.
Any liabilities that are linked to an Asset will show on the Balance Sheet as as slightly indented under the Asset, and with net proceeds values displayed.
Applying calculations:
After adding your client's proposals for each item whereby some items may be retained by a party or sold and the proceeds split, you can use the calculator function to easily model a specific target percentage outcome. For example, if your client is seeking a 60% share of the overall asset pool:
1. Click on the Calculations tab or calculator icon (both will open the same calculations window) and enter the desired percentages for each party. Apply
2. You will notice the outcome in your footer will update accordingly. Scroll down to the outcome box to see the cash adjustment required to achieve this target.
3. There are many options when it comes to applying calculations. To view and customise the calculation settings, click on 'Show all options'. Examples of the settings are:
- Apply a percentage outcome and adjust against a particular asset or super fund such as the family home.
- Exclude an item from the calculations, such as a liability or a particular asset
- Apply a separate percentage split for non-super and /or super items separately